What is biofuel?
Biofuels called those combustible solids, liquids or gases derived from biomass, ie biodegradable fraction of products or waste of various human activities
Biofuels derived from organic products and renewable fuels are considered.
As renewable fuels have the characteristic of lower CO2 emissions in total life cycle compared to conventional fossil fuel element is directly dependent on their origin, their use and their production and distribution.
By burning these fuels emit approximately equal amounts of CO2 to the respective oil-derived. Since organic origin is coal which contain committed during the development of the organic matter from the atmosphere in which returns after burning so the balance of emissions throughout the life cycle of biofuel is theoretically zero.
In practice, because in the production and distribution of feedstock and biofuels themselves involved and other activities in which CO2 emissions produced the final benefit of these fuels can be very large to zero. To give one course on the environmental benefits of some biofuel must perform specific life cycle analysis.
In an effort to promote the use of biofuels in the transport sector in Europe, the European Union adopted the EU directive 2003/30 / EC.
According to the EU directive 2003/30 / EC biofuels considered any liquid or gaseous fuel for transport produced from biomass, where biomass is the biodegradablefraction of products, waste and residues from agriculture (including vegetal and animal substances), forestry and related industries activities as well as the biodegradablefraction of industrial and municipal waste.
According to the same directive in the category of biofuels within bioethanol, biodiesel (methyl ester of fatty acids), biogas, biomethanol, biodimethylether, bio-ETBE(ethyl, the Bio-MTBE (methyl), synthetic biofuels (synthetic hydrocarbons or mixtures of synthetic hydrocarbons produced from biomass), biohydrogen and pure vegetableoils.
The legislation also provides that Member States must ensure that a minimum proportion of biofuels and other renewable fuels is placed on their markets, a proportion for 2005 set at 2%, calculated on the basis of energy content, of all petrol and diesel diesel placed on their markets for transport purposes.
This ratio must be increased to 5.75% by the end of 2010. Greece in the summer of 2005 incorporated the directive into national law. Greece has failed to meet its target of 2% at the end of 2005 and also failed to meet the target for 2010.
